A TALK by controversial historian and Hitler expert David Irving was scrapped after bosses at the Liverpool venue discovered who he was.

Today Jewish leaders said they were glad tonight’s talk by Irving, jailed last year in Austria after he was convicted of Holocaust denial, an offence in that country, had been cancelled.

Mr Irving, 69, was due to speak at the city centre’s Liner hotel as part of a series of UK talks entitled “Who dug the grave of the British Empire – Hitler or Churchill?”

But a spokesman from the hotel said they cancelled a booking made in the name of a history society after receiving tip-offs Mr Irving would be among the speakers.

The spokesman said: “We took a booking from a company calling themselves the Historical Society of Liverpool two months ago for a talk about the history of Liverpool and Winston Churchill.

“But on Friday we received a telephone call and information that David Irving would likely be attending.

“As an organisation we do not accept bookings for groups who promote their own religious or political views and therefore we decided to cancel the booking and cut all ties, which has been accepted by the organisers.”

But Mr Irving claimed threats to “silence” him were behind the cancellation.

He said: “I was due to speak in Liverpool on Saturday. But organisers inform me there may be problems and it may have to be cancelled because of the threat of violence.”

He denied the talk was deliberately timed to coincide with National Holocaust Memorial Day claiming: “This is something that has been planned for months.”

A Merseyside police spokeswoman said they were “unaware” of any threats against Mr Irving.

Mr Irving was sentenced to three years in jail in February 2006.

But he claimed he had changed his views and told the court: “I made a mistake when I said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz.”

He was deported from Austria in December 2006 after an appeal court ruled he should serve his sentence on probation.